MIEF Day Four Summary

Day Four of MIEF-2019 has ended. Our daily digest resumes all the key events of April 13

Lifestyle for Teachers

The speakers of this special project discussed such issues as what a teacher’s social media profile should look like, if teachers need a professional community, how occupational burnout can be resisted, and where one’s privacy ends and the area of professional responsibility starts.

Maria Fadeyeva, Expert at Eureka Institute of Education Quality Assessment: “No code of conduct in social media exists for teachers yet, therefore it needs to be developed. Today, we would like to hear the teachers and to make sure that they hear us, too, so that we could cooperate to find the answer to the question how a teacher must behave in social media and when talking to massmedia in general.”

Nadya Papudoglo, Moderator of “Lifestyle. Do Teachers Need a Professional Community?” panel discussion, Chief Editor at Mel online magasine: “Our discussion was dedicated to the issue of teachers’ professional community. Do teachers need community-based occupational interaction? Do they need professional networking at all? If they do, what kind of networking should it be? Do they need continuous or request-based networking? One of the big takeaways is that no community ever emerges as a result of a top-down approach; a community comes into existence at the initiative of the people eager to share their content. And to make a community last long, you need to change the ways of interaction with the audience permanently”.

I am a Child’s Parent

“I am a Child’s Parent” is a special project that offers numerous noteworthy events for the parents, including a panel discussion on preschoolers’ competencies in the 21st century, a master class on consistency between preschooling and schooling, an interactive session considering pedagogical models used at schools, and other events.

The experts have discussed the difficulties faced by the parents of the future first-graders and the ways to overcome them, as well as such issues like protecting a child against school bullying, aggression, and other pitfalls one might find at school.

Tatiana Klimova, Head of Proobraz project, speaker at the Criteria of a Good School master class: “It was a really useful master class, as the parents got actively involved in the conversation and spoke about the importance of not limiting oneself to formal criteria alone when choosing the school but also paying attention to the atmosphere, to the attitude towards a child, the principal’s, teachers’, and parents’ attitude. Of course, getting to know the experts’ and specialists; opinions as they shared their experience was also truly valuable.

I am a Teenager’s Parent

On April 13, a number of events was held within the scope of I am a Teenager’s Parent special project, including “Special Features of Generation Z”, “They are absolutely different”, and “Heroes of the Teenager World”. Experts, parents, and children were contemplating what can make the parents and the children hear and understand each other. The participants of the project have come to a conclusion that the root cause of the conflict is the eternal problem with the teenagers being unable to hear the adults and the adults having forgotten what they were like in their teen years.

Grigoriy Levontin, moderator of the Heroes of the Teenager World interactive session: “The young are always protesting, negation is important to teenagers. This has been happening throughout the whole history of mankind. The problem known as “the challenges of the time” has existed always, in all ages and at all times. And today it is complicated by the digitalization of life”.

William Sargsyan, student at Municipal Autonomous School of General Education (MAOU) “Liceum” in Balashikha: “The Generation Z is growing in a free and broadly available world where you can find anything on the Internet with little to no effort, where you can learn to master any profession and monetise it. We are urging the older generation to become friends for their children, to accept their way of living, and to pay them heed more often.”

I am a High School Graduate’s Parent

The Unified State Exam (USE), the prom, choosing the university… The time of transition from high school to adult life is one of the most stressful periods in the relationship between the children and the parents. Leading experts in the field of education discussed the ways for families to overcome the new hardships within the scope of I am a High School Graduate’s Parent special project.

Irina Grishina, moderator at How to Make a Decision on What and Where to Study After High School interactive session: “Quite often, the children thing that a profession is something that happens after they graduate from college. This is far from true. It matters not to wait to become the person who will be changing the world to the better, but to start becoming this person now. This is the message we need to get across to the children. Pay attention to your child’s strengths. Praise is never too much, and your children will believe in themselves more and will be able to achieve more.”

Matvey Tkachev, moderator at Surviving Through the USE / BSE: “To pass the exam with a high score, you need to think about what you need it for and not what your score will be. Education for the sake of education is not the right concept; education must serve as a tool to achieve a certain goal. USE is not equal to your whole life, it is just a key to achieve a goal.”

Home Schooling: Is There an Alternative to Traditional School?

Home schooling in Russia is returning to its historical values and objectives. The pupil might see the system as a benefit: you stay at home to study and just take annual end-of-course tests; as for the parents, this scheme might require really hard work. The Homeschooling section at the Moscow International Education Fair ‒ 2019 offered discussions of all the pros and cons of such an approach.

Inga Gurdus, a homeschooler: “I spent a year and a half at a vocational school and made a decision to continue my education at home. Homeschooling gave me knowledge, self-tuition skills, spare time, new hobbies, and the ability to communicate with my family and to trust in it. Most often I am asked about socialisation and preparation to BSE/USE, and my opinion is that one can become a personality and get ready to examinations at home where your family supports you.

The Nursery School Everyone Wants to Attend

What do the children want during outdoor hours? Can a working mom be a good mom? What is the father’s role in bringing up children? The speakers at The Nursery School Everyone Wants to Attend special project touched upon the most challenging aspects of family life.

Vera Sukhikh, Special Project Supervisor: During the event, we attempted to replicate the atmosphere of a real nursery school where children spend their day. We discussed such issues as upgrading of preschool teachers’ skills, a child’s adaptation to nursery school, and the life skills of a preschooler. The format we chose sparked interest and proved to be very relevant.”

Children’s Camps Festival “Fifth Term”

Children’s safety at summer camps and affordability of package summer holidays for children were among the issues discussed by experts and parents at the Fifth Term children’s camps festival. The parents met teachers, youth leaders, and principals, asked questions concerning safety, accommodation, entertainment, and education at the camps, and also reviewed over 40 leisure programmes for children.

Yelena Ryzhenkova, Festival Supervisor: “The idea of the festival is focused on bringing everyone involved in package children’s leisure as close together as possible, including professional teachers, parents, and children. Children are an independent audience, and they do have some say when it comes to making a decision concerning their holidays; so, having this in mind, we took care to make our programme appealing to families with children and equally entertaining both for the children and for their parents.”

Total Dictation

Total Dictation is a self-contained project; this year, it happened to coincide with the Week of Education, and MIEF is one of its venues. The purpose of the event is to show the importance of being literate for every human being, and to get across the message that studying Russian might be challenging but exciting and useful.